Stoke Newington Church Street

Pinterest, Planning Permission, and a Prime Advertising Wall

The rapid removal of a Pinterest advertising banner that covered a community mural in Stoke Newington, and the wider ethical issues it raises.

7 Jun 2021

Alf the Purse King

“Among the restaurants and cafes that dominate today’s Stoke Newington Church Street in North London is a ghost sign representing both the industrial and Jewish heritage of the area. The proud proclamation of ‘Alf the Purse King’ (the ‘man bags’ of their day?) is fading gracefully, high up on the bricks of its host building. […]

28 Sep 2020

Lancell Road’s Mystery Ghost Sign

[Download in high resolution] At 49 Stoke Newington Church Street, junction with Lancell Road, is this fragment of a ghost sign which, despite my best efforts, has remained a mystery in terms of decyphering. It would once have extended further to the right to fill the chamfer, but this portion was left exposed and subsequently […]

2 Nov 2018

Numbers 3-7 Stoke Newington Church Street

On one of my walking tours back in 2014 guests had the opportunity to see this reveal of a newsagent and tobacconists’ sign at No.5 Stoke Newington Church Street. Starlove, as it was known, occupied the premises from at least 1962 until the late 1970s and, prior to that, it had been a newsagent since […]

29 Dec 2017

Wine & Willing: A Stoke Newington Mystery

This fragment was one of my early discoveries when I first started noticing ghost signs in 2006. It was located on a very prominent wall on Stoke Newington Church Street, adjacent to William Patten School. At some stage after it was originally painted the patch of wall with this picture was probably covered by a […]

12 Nov 2017

The Vacuum Shop and George Braun

Guests on my Stoke Newington Ghostsigns Walk in early 2015 were lucky to see a bonus fading fascia en route, advertising The Vacuum Shop. This was revealed by works to the Anglo Asian restaurant, which now straddles numbers 60 and 62 Stoke Newington Church Street. Ben Selig was the proprietor of an “electrical appliances” shop […]

15 Apr 2017

Pulse of the Planet

A while ago I submitted some photos and general information to a competition run by USA science website Pulse of the Planet. And I won (!) with this picture of one of my personal favourites from Stoke Newington Church Street, N16. Interestingly one of the two runners up prizes went to another Stoke Newington sign […]

2 Dec 2007

Vortex (RIP)

This sign and former Stoke Newington landmark were both destroyed in favour of a new development on Church Street.  The Jazz bar moved to Dalston in 2005, but 2007 saw an ongoing squat protest to stop the developers moving in. Despite some shocking luminous grafitti protesting against the possibility of Starbucks I was pleased to […]

18 Jun 2007

Welcome to Ghost Signs

This is my first venture into blogging and so I thought an intro post might be worthwhile.I will be updating with new discoveries all the time but here’s a nice opener of the sign that inspired me. It is in Stoke Newington and from an age when people actually got their fountain pens repaired! December […]

16 Jun 2007